Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is being increasingly used in clinical laboratories for the diagnosis of human papillomavirus. From the L1 region, there are two commonly used consensus primer systems designated CP5+/G6+ and MY09/MY11. Both detect a wide variety of human papillomaviruses (HPVs). In this investigation, the authors compared the sensitivity of these approaches with the modification of hot-start PCR on 148 neutral-buffered formaldehyde-fixed cervical biopsies classified as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I to III. The authors chose hot-start PCR because in a previous study it proved more sensitive than cold-start PCR. Furthermore, the authors combined GP5+/GP6+ and MY09/MY11 in a two-step amplification (nested PCR) to analyze further those cases that proved negative with either GP5+/GP6+ or MY09/MY11. The authors found that the two consensus primer systems were equally sensitive with a correlation of 98%. By using GP5+/GP6+, the authors achieved an HPV positivity rate of 95% and with MY09/MY11 94%. Nested PCR did not improve HPV positivity in the CINs included in this study.